Guards spark Creek rout
Mustangs win 77-62.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE – Mullen entered a crossroads of sorts on Saturday night.
The Mustangs were coming off a stinging loss to traditional, parochial-rival Regis Jesuit, had dropped five of their previous eight games and were facing host Cherry Creek, which had gotten them off to a losing start to the Centennial League schedule on Jan. 3 in a listless loss at home at Hutchison Fieldhouse.
But instead of folding, Mullen rose to the start of the second go-round in the home-and-away league slate with a rousing 77-62 victory in which its lineup was tweaked, the team’s Isaac Squared (juniors Isaac Ondekane and Isaac White) were dominant, the return to a commitment to team ball paid dividends and it moved past so many of the sins that had led to its confounding lull.
Mullen improved to 11-6 overall, 4-4 in league and equaling its output in both categories from a season ago.
And there was life in the Mustangs’ postgame comments.
“We had a lot of energy for this game,” said White, who led all scorers with 30 points, including five 3-pointers on a season-high since moving to Colorado from Pennsylvania. He had a difficult shooting night on Friday, but was a very warm 10-of-13 against the Bruins (9-8, 4-4). “Coach (Bob Caton) said to keep shooting and the basket looked good to me.”
Ondekane, who had 23 points and nine rebounds, said “losing to Regis (Jesuit) really pushed me and made me look at myself.”
And Christian Davis said following the loss to the Raiders that “we talked about what we needed to do to get the job done and we came together really well to get a good team win.”
The Mustangs did not trail in cruising to leads of 6-1, 12-3 and 18-8. Cherry Creek made a couple of moves in the second quarter, but the Mustangs were never really threatened and responded whenever necessary.
In particular, White, a savvy 6-foot-1 guard who played club ball in the Philadelphia area, clearly had his best game. Recently moved into the starting lineup, not only did he score 10 of his points in the first quarter to spark the runaway, but he moved the ball well, defended regularly, was a stabilizing force out front handling the ball and drove to the basket strongly when he wasn’t cashing 3s.
He’s playing the kind of basketball Caton had envisioned when he heard the younger White was following his father, Mustangs legend Vincent White, now the schools’ football head coach, to Denver.
“Oh, gosh, yeah, he did a great job,” Caton said.
Christian Davis added 10 points. Vaughnn Stitt, Brady Parris, Matt Veen and Connor Riepma were other major contributors in the roatation as the Mustangs, who appeared tired the previous night, looked more like the team that had gotten off to a 7-1 nonleague start.
However, they were aware of what kind of competition the Centennial offers and have six more games to experience it.
The difference now may be that playing together, dealing with mistakes and taking practice seriously could be their tickets to a good Class 5A playoff seed and possible success in the tournament.
Next, though, is a Wednesday matchup at Arapahoe in league play. It’s about steps for the Mustangs.
“I think it’s a confidence booster for us,” Davis said. “Losing to Cherry Creek before and winning tonight, I think it shows how much we’ve grown in the last month or so, where we could be and what we have to do to take the next step.”
Caton called it “one of the best games we’ve played. We put it all together. We didn’t have any lapses. We might have had a little bit of one, but we caught back up. If we made a mistake on defense, we recovered. If we had a turnover, we came back the next time. It’s the most-consistent we’ve played, a total team win.”
MULLEN 77, CHERRY CREEK 62
Mullen 20 10 23 24 -- 77
Cherry Creek 11 11 15 25 -- 62
Mullen – Davis 4 0-0 10, Stitt 2 0-0 4, White 10 5-6 30, Parris 1 0-0 2, Ondekane 9 7-11 23, Veen 2 0-2 4, Riepma 2 0-0 4, Lopez 0 0-2 0, Beckish 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 0-0 0, Carter 0 0-0 0, Dominguez 0 0-0 0, Berg 0 0-0 0. Totals 29 12-21 77.
Cherry Creek – Hammond 6 2-2 18, Purchase 10 2-2 24, Hand 1 0-0 3, Mitchell 1 2-2 4, LeFebre 2 1-2 5, Hausman 1 0-0 2, Kim 0 0-0 0, Hawley 2 0-0 6, Walker 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 7-8 62.
3-pt. goals: White 5, Davis 2; Hammond 4, Hawley 2, Purchase 2, Hand.
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